


And it’s back to the beginning (nearly)

by SmokyCinnamonRoll



Series: catch your thoughts (and your breath) [6]
Category: Warframe
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Virmink floofs, not the excal you think it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 12:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17002002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmokyCinnamonRoll/pseuds/SmokyCinnamonRoll
Summary: He just wanted to get some floofs, but the amount of tags he has strongly suggest that’s not going to happen.However, a chance encounter might just be what he needs.





	And it’s back to the beginning (nearly)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to @DragonPanther888 for letting me use their excal, Chase!

Something was starting to feel wrong. He couldn’t deny it any more; the nightmares were near constant, even when he barely slept at all. The pocket watch, for all it’s constant ticking, still felt safe though. He didn’t know how to explain it to anybody else, but it felt like home, in a way.  
The days came and went, yet he could hardly tell. Sleep was a thing of the past. Or, well, actual sleep rather. Not the naps he was prone to taking.  
Quell might have noticed. Biz, too, in a roundabout way, he realized as he pulled himself back to reality.  
“I... take it you like the floofs?” Biz said, head tilted slightly.  
He looked down at the pile in his arms, looked back up, and cautiously nodded.  
“You have the required amount of tags, then?”  
“...fuck,” he said quietly, carefully setting the floofs down to dig through his seemingly endless pockets.  
Lighter, half a cookie, multi-tool, small collection of sharps bundled together, pocket watch (unfortunately,) half a pack of cigarettes... and a grand total of three tags. The floofs were not going to be traded for, it seemed.  
“Sorry, sorry I...” he sighed, reluctantly pushing the floofs back over to Biz. “Thought I was being more useful than that,” he muttered, pointedly looking away.  
A nearby Excalibur, with pink and blue accents, looked over as Biz started putting the floofs back up.  
“Uh, Hey, I’ve got, I, I have some spare, some spare tags if you, if, uh, if you want them,” said the Excalibur, holding up a handful as proof.  
“Nah, that’s... it’s alright, kid. You don’t have to get anything for someone you hardly know.”  
“Uh, you, you, you wanted the um, the virmink, virmink floofs, right, uh...?” The Excalibur looked at him expectantly, waiting for something. What was he...? Oh, right. The name.  
“Just Nidus, kid. It’s not... well, whatever. It’s just Nidus.”  
“Oh.” Excalibur looked back at Biz. “How many, how, how, how many, uh, floofs did, did, did they-”  
“He.”  
“Did, did he, um, did he want?”  
The light’s on Biz’s head flickered for a moment as he paused, probably thinking.  
“...eight, I believe,” he said, just when Nidus thought he’d forgotten.  
“Uh,” Excalibur looked back to him. “Okay?”  
“Shut up, kid,” he responded, half turning away from both of them.  
“No, no, I think I have, have, have enough tags, uh, tags for, for eight! Don’t, uh, don’t, don’t worry, uh, Nidus!” Excalibur sounded... worried, probably. Upset? Panicked? Something, anyways.  
“Um, Biz, here’s... forty, forty, forty tags. Can, can I, I, I, can I have the, the floofs, floofs please?”  
The end of Excalibur’s question started fading out, and he realized he was going to miss the rest of the conversation.  
He hoped he wouldn’t dream, for perhaps the first time in quite a long while.  
“Hey, uh, Nidus?”  
Someone tapped his shoulder, and he was awake in less than a second, spinning around with his hands on the pox by his sides.  
He relaxed slightly upon seeing it was only the Excalibur from before, arms full with the virmink floofs he had tried to buy just minutes before.  
“I, I, I have, I, I have the, uh, the, the, the floofs you, you, you wanted...”  
“...thanks, kid.”  
He reached out and took the floofs, putting a few in his pockets to better carry them.   
Walking as fast as he could while trying to avoid all the other tenno and warframes around, going through a list of all the things he’d wanted to do while still in fortuna. Getting the floofs was about the only thing he could think of, but he was certain someone had told him to do something else. Had he simply fallen asleep? It seemed likely, considering the fact he couldn’t even remember who had been telling him to get things.  
Now, he could simply head back to the orbiter, and ask Quell what he was supposed to do, but...  
He looked at the doors to the elevator.  
It was more than likely that the corpus had at least one spot in the vallis that they avoided, and if he could just find it... well, the trouble of having to fight them would be well worth some peace and quiet.  
With only the humming of the elevator and the constant ticking to accompany him, he waited.  
He wondered if he’d ever meet that excalibur again.

**Author's Note:**

> Not much to say about this, really. I couldn’t find a good way to end it, haha.  
> And uh, I think I’ve hinted at it before, but in case you didn’t know, Nidus smokes.  
> And is also Nidus so... I don’t think it would have any lasting effect on his health? At least, not when he’s, well, Nidus.


End file.
